Question

How is Lucy, the A. Afarensis, evidence of evolution?

Answer 1

Hint: Australopithecus afarensis (Lucy) belongs to the genus Australopithecus which is a small-brained best represented-species of early hominin species (which is a human relative).

Complete answer:
In evolutionary biology, evolution refers to the change in the characteristics of a species over several generations and relies on the process of natural selection, and its theory is based on the idea that all species are related and changes over time gradually.

Lucy was one of the first hominin fossils, and her skeleton is around forty percent complete at the time of her journey and was by far the most complete early hominin known. Lucy’s skeleton is composed of 47 out of 207 bones which involve parts of the arms, legs, spine, ribs, and pelvis and also the lower jaw and several other skull fragments. Most of the bones of hand and foot were missing. In 1974, Lucy showed that human ancestors were up and walking around long before the earliest stone tools were made or brains got bigger, and subsequent fossil finds or much earlier bipedal hominids confirmed these conclusions. Bipedalism seems to be the first step towards becoming a human.

Australopithecus afarensis possess characteristics of both ape and human. The skull top or cranial vault was slightly domed and its brain was comparable in size with the chimpanzees. While some of the evidence of skull specimens of this species shows the presence of powerful chewing muscles.

Note: Fossils are important for understanding evolutionary history and they also provide direct evidence of evolution. Australopithecus is one of the known ancestors of our ancestors because of several major discoveries involving a set of fossil footprints and fossil skeleton of a female nicknamed i.e. Lucy.